Park meets ruling party leaders to discuss parliamentary impasse

President Park Geun-hye met with leaders of the ruling Saenuri Party on Friday to discuss how to break the deadlock in negotiations with the opposition party over her government reorganization plans. The meeting was seen as aimed at pressuring the main opposition Democratic United Party to accept the reorganization proposal that creates new ministries and other offices and reassigns responsibilities among existing ones. The impasse has kept Park from completing the formation of her Cabinet in the way she wants. Early this month, Park had invited leaders of both the ruling and opposition parties to the presidential office in an effort to broker agreement on the issue, but the opposition party rejected the invitation. "It has been nearly 20 days since the government was launched, but no agreement has been reached yet on the government organization bill," presidential spokesman Yoon Chang-jung said, adding that Park was forced to meet only with ruling party leaders as the opposition party rejected her offer. Further details of the meeting were not immediately available. The main sticking point in the negotiations is Park's proposal to move the responsibilities for oversight of cable channels, Internet TV and other broadcasting outlets from the watchdog Korea Communications Commission to the science ministry to be created under the reorganization bill. Park has repeatedly stressed that the convergence of broadcasting and communications technology is a future growth engine for the country, and that the envisioned transfer would help the government handle IT and broadcasting issues more efficiently. But the opposition party has strongly opposed the idea, claiming it is an attempt to bring broadcasting firms under government control. Park has flatly denied the claim.